| Origin of Red Beans | Poems of Red Beans |
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| The origin of red beans |
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| Just as the name replies, the fruits of red beans are round and sparking; making them perfect for decorations. Our ancestors used to use red beans as a gift of love. There are even some romantic stories related to red beans. It was said that a lady in Wei Country in the time of Seven Kingdoms waiting for her husband who fought in the front line against the invasion of the Chin Dynasty. Her lovesickness for her husband made her death. The place of her burial grew a tree and all the branches point to where her husband belonged. After that, people called this kind of trees "Taiwan acacia", and the seeds of the trees are called love peas. |
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| Another story goes to a woman whose husband died in the front line. After hearing the sad news, she suicide and hung herself in the tree where she kissed goodbye to her husband when he joined the military force. The wife turned herself into red beans, which are later called love peas. In old poems, red beans were often used as a taken of love. |
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| The Origin of Wandan Red Bean Love Amulet |
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| Around 1960s, red beans were introduced to Wandan. With great productivity, red beans soon took place of other farm crops. All neighborhoods around Wandan hired thousands of Wandan people to cultivate red beans before the Double Tenth Day. Many girls and boys worked together and soon became couples. They gave red beans to each other as a token of love. They knew each other because of red beans and got married because of red beans. This turned into a custom in Wandan to appreciate Gods and red beans for being as a token of their love. |
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| Red Beans V.S. Sandalwoods |
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| Red beans, also called love peas, are solid and bloody red like a bumping heart. They never decay and never turn rotten. The color goes deeper to the core. There is heart-shaped curve circled the dark red inside; just like a heart circle a heart. Wei Wang, a famous ancient Chinese poet once wrote in his poem, |
| "A red berry grows in the south country - |
| The boughs are full of them when spring arrives. |
| Gather some, I pray, and fill your packets - |
| These are the best forget - me - nots!" |
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| Sandalwoods are heart-shaped with a shallow-colored heart-shaped curve circles the inside; making it like two hearts complete the meeting. With the color of bright red, sandalwoods present pure love. With the characteristics of being hardly rotten, decayed, broken and fragile, they can also present persistency. Growing near high cliffs, sandalwoods absorb the pure aura. Only places like Yunnan and Heinam of the Mainland China, where many cliffs are located, can grow this kind of pure sandalwoods. Probably because of the different climate, the rest sandalwoods growing in the south of Yangtze River are smaller with a little black mouth. This kind of sandalwoods is called "lover's tears." |
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